Elim Lutheran Church
Office:  504 Baker Street
Petaluma, CA 94952
707-762-4081
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Devotion From Pastor Kathryn: December 31, 2020

12/31/2020

 
Happy 2021!!
 
Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I do! Every year! It’s no doubt a bit overly optimistic, a bit unrealistic, and perhaps even a bit naïve . . . but I do it anyway!

I encourage you to make at least one this New Year: to reflect on your life in prayer with God each day! Either in the morning, afternoon, or evening  -- when you are sitting in your favorite chair, or out on a hike or when you are in your bed.

You can start with just five minutes! (And if you’re already doing this – then bravo to you!)
 
I’d like to share a paragraph with you from a book I’ve been reading by Joseph Schmidt: Praying our Experiences: An Invitation to Open our Lives to God.  (Brother Joseph writes about the mystics and is a lecturer and spiritual director.)

“Nothing is more a gift from God than our creation, our life, and our continued existence in God’s love. As a gift, our life unfolds under God’s loving care. God continually sustains us, graces us, and calls us. Each of our days is a gift and a call from the Creator. To reflect on our experiences, then, is to unwrap the gift, to listen to the call. Far from being a selfish activity, this reflection can be a way of centering on God, a way of hearing God’s word addressed to us as individuals in the uniqueness of our person. It can be a way of taking seriously our faith in God’s providence and our belief that everything is grace.”

Saints of Elim: may you delight in this New Year, may you experience God’s blessings of health and joy, and may you have FUN unwrapping the gift!

Christmas JOY! (It’s still Christmas, you know . . . until Epiphany!)
Pr. Kathryn

Devotion From Pastor Kathryn: December 24, 2020

12/24/2020

 
​Hello All!
I found this quote from Frederick Buechner, one of my favorite spiritual writers.

"X IS THE GREEK LETTER CHI, which is the first letter of the word Christ. Thus Xmas is shorthand for Christmas, taking only about one-sixth as long to write. If you do your cards by hand, it is possible to save as much as seventy-five or eighty minutes a year.

It is tempting to say that what you do with this time that you save is your own business. Briefly stated, however, the Christian position is that there's no such thing as your own business."


May the JOY of Christmas fill your hearts! 

In Christ's love, 
Pr. Kathryn

    Pastor Kathryn Gulbranson

    Interim Pastor

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